Lockdown Library – Nicola Skinner

May 26, 2020

We hope you all had a glorious long weekend and managed to enjoy some socially distanced sunshine. To kick off our week in the #LockdownLibrary we have the wonderful Nicola Skinner reading from her new novel, Storm.

PFD’s Lockdown Library is a new project bringing together our wonderful authors to offer up some fun, learning and relaxation during these strange times. We’ll be posting regular book readings, short talks and Lockdown Lunches from our chefs, so be sure to follow our Twitter and Instagram(both @pfdagents) to see when there’s something new in the #LockdownLibrary.

 

The extraordinarily moving, funny and original new novel from the author of the rapturously acclaimed BLOOM.

“You were born raging, Frances Frida Ripley. That’s what happens when you’re born in a storm.”

Frances’s parents were not prepared for her birth: they had a blanket and an easel and some paint, but not anything useful, like a car or a phone. So it’s no wonder Frankie has always had a temper. She was born on a BEACH, in a STORM.

What Frances was not prepared for was dying in a freak natural disaster that wiped out her whole town.

Waking up 100 years later, Frances finds a whole load of new things to be angry about. And that’s before the visitors start turning up, treating her home like it’s a tourist attraction. Which it is.

Only there are worse people out there than tourists… and they’re coming for Frankie.

Frankie is about to discover that there are things more important than herself – and that anger has its uses. Because when you have a storm inside you – sometimes the only thing to do is let it out…

A dandelion being blown by her young daughter gave Nicola the idea for her first book, Bloom. As a freelance journalist and copywriter, Nicola has written for the GuardianThe PoolThe National Trust, and many national magazines. One of her features on language led to a guest appearance on Michael Rosen’s Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth. She lives in Bristol with her family.

Bloom was published in hardback by HarperCollins Children’s Books in April 2019, followed by the paperback edition on March 5th, 2020. Her second stand-alone middle grade novel is entitled Storm and was published on April 2nd, 2020, also by HarperCollins Children’s Books.